Streaked nails: the causes and solutions to remedy them

Discover the expert advice of Buddha Nail Studio, to find healthy nails.

What are ridges on the nails?

If you have damaged nails, you may have noticed “small scratches, longitudinal or transverse that appear thicker” on the surface of one or even several nails, as our nail health expert describes it. These lines are ridges that make your “horny plaque look jagged” and not smooth as it should be. One of the most common problems with soft nails, brittle nails and split nails.

Why are the fingernails ridged?

The nail is a flexible horny plate made up of keratin, that is to say epidermal cells born in the matrix of the nail and having hardened, or keratinized. Together, they form a smooth nail plate, but sometimes it is damaged and streaks appear on the surface of the nails. In a healthy person, the streaks are “ the ‘wrinkles’ of the nail ”, informs us the expert, before adding that they are then “ caused mainly by aging and the attacks suffered ” by your nails on a daily basis, such as cold or household products. Buddha Nail Studio also points out that “ with age, the cells make lower quality keratin ” which makes our nails more prone to ridges as we age. But this is far from being the only cause of ridged nails, because it happens that these lines, longitudinal or transverse which come to wrinkle the nail, do it when we are still very young.

The different causes of ridges on the nails

The origin of the ridges on the nails is indeed multiple, as Buddha Nail Studio, reveals to us. For example, that striae can also be linked to deficiencies and more precisely “ caused by a deficiency in vitamins and minerals ”, and Buddha Nail Studio points out that “ age or diets ” can be at the origin of these missing.

Buddha Nail Studio also adds that a ridged nail can be the result of “ drying of the nail due to external aggressions, housework done without gloves, or the use of nail polish remover with acetone ”. In other words, the ridges can also appear when your nails are dry.

But “menopausal hormonal changes” can also be the cause if the appearance of the ridges on the surface of your nails coincides, as the expert notes. Finally, some “treatments and diseases can also cause ridges” on the nails. This is particularly the case with “chemotherapy“, “diabetes” or even a less serious but rather widespread skin condition: “psoriasis“.

What are the consequences for the nail in the short and long term?

Rest assured, if the streaks have just appeared on your nails, in the short term “ it is especially annoying from an aesthetic point of view ”, because the parallel lines in relief on the surface of the nails make the bare nail less pretty and tend to warp the nail polish once it is applied, or even cause it to crack in the worst case. Apart from the slightly less clean appearance of the surface of your nails, on the other hand, there are no serious consequences on your nails in the short term.

Rather, if you do nothing and let the streaks set in, in the long run, they can cause problems and really harm the health of your nails. “Striated nails can crack” and this “lengthwise which is annoying and painful”. It is therefore in your best interest to find a solution to your streaks before they really damage your nails.

Ridged nails: what to avoid

When your nails are weakened by the ridges, it is important not to aggravate the situation by adopting bad gestures or bad reflexes. First of all, it is necessary to “ avoid the aggressions of cold, drought and water, which will stimulate their appearance”, explains the expert in nail health.

During your manicure, it is also useful to “prohibit polishing the nail plate”, which then constitutes an “aggravating additional trauma” for your ridged nails, as Buddha Nail Studio points out. Similarly, it is advisable to “ avoid poor quality nail polish ”, as well as “ solvent with acetone ”, which can then be very easily replaced by a varnish with a clean composition and therefore more respectful of the nails of a person. hand, and by a mild solvent that does not contain drying acetone, on the other hand.